George the Pruner

Looking out my back door (CCR)

        I am standing at my back door, looking at our ornamental grass that we planted early in the spring. It began as most of our plants do as an example of Darwin's principle. We placed it in the backyard and dared it to survive. It has taken the challenge well. It has now reached the place where it is challenging us to deal with its success. I have been told that I need to cut it back for winter. I guess like our roses out front that get whacked down to about a foot or two every year,  these beauties will be pruned back, too. I reason  if you develop the right attitude it can be a pleasant thing. But I do wonder every year, however fleetingly, if those roses are just going to get mad and stop blooming."That's it, you've cut me back for the last time." I feel that because I know that in due season God prunes me back too.
       Its tough living with a God who demands change. Sometimes the Lord's pruning of my life can get a wrong reaction. So I guess I am transferring my feelings to the roses. But John helps me with my reaction in verses 1 and 2 of John 15.
      John records Christ telling us what this is all about. He said, "Call in George its time to cut back, so the new can come in stronger and be more abundant"(DHBV). It is an odd way to produce more abundance. Cut back. And it's not just the dead vegetation either. The whole plant gets cut down to size. My mother used to "pinch" back her blooms. I don't think it had the same purpose when she pinched me in church, though, but back to the point. 
        I was reading about George in chapter 15 of John. How he prunes the plants so it can produce more. Jesus is actually talking about a vine, probably a grape vine.

1. =Egw◊ ei∆mi hJ a⁄mpeloß hJ a˙lhqinh; kai… oJ pathvr mou oJ gewrgovß e∆stin. 

2. paÇn klh:ma e∆n e∆moi… mh; fe√ron karpo;n ai“rei aujtov, kai… paÇn to; karpo;n fe√ron kaqai√rei aujto; i”na karpo;n plei√ona fe√rh≥. 

Not Jorge

      Who is George?  He is Jesus' father. Last half of verse one reads and I will write it out in transliteration, "ego eimi he ampelos he alethine kai ho pater mou ho georgos estin. - You can see where we get the name George. It means farmer (literal: worker of earth) or in this case since we are talking about vines, he is the vinedresser or husbandman. But the literal could mean (doug's translation dhb)  "my father is  George". Okay I am making the wrong point here. The real point is that in verse 2 the Father prunes "so that it (the plant) may keep on producing fruit (subjunctive case hina purpose clause - for the Greekies) . Not that it has not borne fruit, but that it may keep bearing fruit. According to Robertson, the word translated for pruning, kaqai√re, is used only here in NT although it is used in many 1st century ceremonial cleansings.  We derive our English word cathartic from this word, meaning a purging.  So pruning is not just cutting back, but a deeper health or cleansing, or purging  is going on in the plant. 
      So this can explain what is happening to us (as Christians). Our father, the good husbandman  cuts what we are making, producing, or ministering, and prunes it all back so it may keep on producing. When this happens we know we are in a time of change. A time of transition is happening, from an old to a new.  The health of our ministry in Christ is at stake. Not that we were sick, because the dead wood he throws away, but the producing branches he makes them stronger and newer by this cathartic process. 

i”na karpo;n plei√ona fe√rh≥.

       I am glad to know this because I have been going through a time of cut backs. Some have been simple like cleaning out our attic, and throwing away stuff that I have been hanging onto that was just clutter.   Others have been more complicated like pulling back from and even cutting off some relationships. I know in my heart that it is God doing it.  I trust that He is being the good husbandman, and He will bring back fruit in those areas that will be healthier, stronger, and yes cleaner in Christ. Sometimes I am reminded that God wants us to move to a new place in Him. He has to cut away the old so the new buds can come forth in due season. This is my prayer and expectation. It really is a way of life with God. He does not change but we do change into him. He doesn't seem to let us settle. Like Abraham we are in a transition looking for a new land. A place where we can live and grow strong in God.
      And that really is every Christians' prayer  that we would grow stronger in Christ. This makes me love the scriptures even more with deepening meaning. "I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." 15:5.